Hungary

Hungary documents by Year:

"Being a reporter in much of the world is dangerous work. Being an investigative reporter can be deadly," CPJ Deputy Executive Director Robert Mahoney told the U.S. Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, known as the Helsinki Commission, at a briefing in Washington, D.C. today....

Independent journalists in Hungary brace for tough times in next Orbán term

May 7, 2018 6:00 PM ET

As Hungary's new Parliament holds its first session, where Prime Minister Viktor Orbán is due to form his third consecutive government after a landslide re-election a month ago, journalists critical of his power will closely monitor his words for hints of what awaits them in the next four years....

Press freedom on OGP agenda as authoritarianism rises

December 12, 2016 12:34 PM ET

There was poignancy to the Paris summit of the Open Government Partnership, as leaders from government and civil society took the stage to defend a political ideology under siege: liberal democracy. French President François Hollande, who amid weak public support announced he will not seek re-election in 2017, called...

UN review of Hungary shows country 'treats human rights as a public enemy'

May 13, 2016 1:33 PM ET

On May 9, a stern review of Hungary's conduct in human rights issues and press freedom was released at the United Nations Human Rights Council. The report, drafted by the Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review, listed concerns from U.N. member states about the controversial policies of Viktor...

Journalists not welcome: Across Europe, press and migrants increasingly barred

March 7, 2016 1:01 PM ET

"The press is not allowed in refugee centers." The message from the Greek government could not have been clearer. "No permission will be given to television crews and reporters to enter such premises that hosts refugees," Yannis Mouzalas, the minister in charge of immigration policy, said in a February...

New hurdles for Hungary's press as Orbán restricts FOI requests

July 24, 2015 1:42 PM ET

"This is the best thing that has ever happened in Hungary." Katalin Erdélyi, a freedom of information activist, was referring to a ground-breaking website launched in Hungary in 2012. "I was glad because I realized the potential and how it will help me get all the information I longed...

Orbán walks fine line in Brussels with Hungary's media law

November 3, 2014 12:21 PM ET

"With the Islamic state offensive, the Ebola epidemic and Ukraine, Hungary is not on anyone's mind in Europe," mused one of our interlocutors during the Committee to Protect Journalists' fact-finding mission in Budapest in October. "Viktor Orbán has really nothing to fear from Brussels."...

In Hungary, an independent website defies censorship and pressure

October 31, 2014 10:52 AM ET

A delegation from the Committee to Protect Journalists, led by board member Kati Marton, traveled to Hungary in October on CPJ's first fact-finding and advocacy mission to an EU member state. We went there in response to concerning reports of deteriorating conditions for the press, and met dozens of...

Mission Journal: Creeping authoritarianism in Hungary

October 30, 2014 12:14 PM ET

On the Buda side of the River Danube stands the glass and steel headquarters of the thriving German-owned entertainment channel RTL. On the Pest side of the Hungarian capital, tucked in a corner of a converted department store, lies the cramped office of struggling online news outlet Atlatszo....

Amid government crackdown, Hungary's journalists look for new ways to work

October 9, 2014 2:26 PM ET

"They raided our offices as if we were mobsters. The irony of the situation is that the Hungarian police rarely raid mobsters with such force," said an employee at one of two NGOs whose Budapest offices were stormed by about 20 officers of the Central Investigations Office--Hungary's version of the...